Juvenile Justice

magine that you are an attorney, specializing in juvenile justice cases. You receive a phone call from Mrs. I whose 15-year old has been arrested for stealing a car, driving without a license, and finally crashing it into a storefront. Mrs. I is distraught and concerned that her child will be held in the county jail and abused. The maximum sentence that can be assessed is 6 years in prison to a minimum of 200 hours of community service and 2 weeks in the county’s boot camp program.

Please answer the following questions. As you answer each question you must provide support or evidence that will enhance and empirically prove your answers. Academic criminal justice articles or real-life criminal justice findings that are not found in journals or other academic sources must be cited in supporting your answers. Please use APA style for all cited sources including your resource page.

• How will you respond to Mrs. I? Provide a small narrative if necessary to demonstrate your approach toward the client.
• What are the steps in the juvenile justice process that must be taken to defend Mrs. I’s teenager? Provide steps and how you would approach making sure every step is handled for this case.
• In your opinion. If you were the judge, how would you judge and sentence this case, understanding that the 15-year old committed the crime described?  

The cost and political headache of the correctional system in the United States have conduced government leaders to entertain the idea of privatizing the correctional system. The benefits that are cited for this type of move are as follows: financial savings for state and local governments, ability to provide more police officers in communities, and curb the model of imprisonment to rehabilitation by taking funds saved and investing them in rehabilitation programs. Yet many oppose the idea that oversight of compounds where dangerous individuals are detained will be in the hand of private companies with no true accountability system to make sure the correctional system is run safely and humanely.

Please post your answer to the following questions. The answer or opinion must be supported by an academic source or real-criminal justice finding. You must provide feedback to at least two other posts from students.

• Should the government be able to give up its responsibility for the custody of an individual and engage in contracts with private organizations to provide privatization of prisons and jails? Why? Assume this includes only convicted offenders and defendants awaiting trial would still be kept under the authority of the state.